Modern electronic systems are often implemented using removable modules containing electronic components. These electronic modules, or LRUs, may include printed wire/circuit boards (PWBs/PCBs) or “circuit cards” or collections thereof, and provide quick replacement or repair, simplified system packaging and reduced cost. In some applications, these modules comprise high-power electronic components which generate large amounts of heat during operation. In order to prevent damage and extend the service life of these components, separate conductive cooling systems are often implemented into these systems. These cooling systems may comprise, for example, heat sinks or heat exchangers embodied as heat-conducting chassis or frames which may be air or liquid-cooled, or may simply comprise a large thermal capacity.
In traditional systems, LRUs are generally “edge-cooled”, or held on their ends within slots formed on opposing “cold walls” or “cold plates” of a chassis. Such edge-cooled arrangements suffer from several significant drawbacks. For example, cooling is relatively inefficient, as contact with the cold walls occurs only at the edges of the units. In other systems, a major surface of an LRU is placed in contact with a cooling surface of a cold plate, improving cooling performance compared to edge-cooled arrangements. However, due to the increasingly dense packaging of electronic components in modern systems, achieving this type of cooling in space-limited environments requires thermally mating LRUs to multiple cooling surfaces that are oriented in multiple discrete directions. These arrangements require the application of forces acting normal to each of these surfaces, and thus, forces acting in multiple directions, in order to maintain sufficient contact pressure.
Improved systems and methods for LRU retention and cooling in these systems are desired.